Most individuals feel that they must first be given a title or a team to lead. Without the opportunity to lead how can one actually showcase their ability to lead? This cannot be further from the truth.
When leaders are looking for that person to give a leadership responsibility to, they consider who might have demonstrated the potential to lead thus far. Simple gestures of who raised their hand when a volunteer was needed for a task, or who brought a solution rather than only problems to the meeting, or who goes above and beyond their work and who is focused on achieving success for the whole team instead of just themselves. All of these instances leave an impression.
Leaders notice and remember such instances a lot more than you may think they do. Leaders are subtle in evaluating how each person behaves, reacts to situations, and is perceived within the team. It gives them a perception of who has the potential to be the leader should an opportunity come up.
It takes effort to stand out as someone with the potential to lead within your team. Here are 5 things you can do to showcase your potential to lead without a title or a team.
1. Adopt an enterprise mindset
Leaders focus on the big picture and are driven by the shared goals within their organization. Enterprise mindset is about figuring out ‘why you and your role exists’ in your team, department, and wider organization. To figure this out, find out what the goals and missions of your organization are as an organization. This is often at a higher level than the daily work you do within your team.
Learning about the key challenges that your organization is trying to overcome and what success looks like can be very useful. Understanding this is fundamental to finding your focus for efforts, making decisions, and adding value to the organization in a way that is aligned to the broader goals and mission of the organization. Speak about your decisions and efforts to others as well in a way that shows you understand the organisations needs. All this will definitely help you stand out as a leader even without a title or a team.
2. Actions speak louder than titles
Once you embrace the enterprise mindset, demonstrate leadership through your actions, work ethic, and commitment to quality patient care. Be a role model for professionalism, empathy, and a dedication to continuous improvement. Focus on the impact of your efforts as an individual and how that translates to value within the organization. There are many ways to measure the success you create, these could be by the positive changes, improvements, or contributions you make to patient outcomes, operational efficiency, or overall organizational goals. What you choose to focus on should be something you are passionate about and stretch above and beyond your daily work.
3. Leverage Informal Influence
Influencing others is a very impactful and noticeable leadership character. However, it is one that is hard to do as it requires you to build relationships, stay up to date on information and develop opinions of your own that are valuable to others. As you work, adopt a continuous learning culture as well as spend time to cultivate relationships and build networks within the organization. Use informal influence to inspire others, share insights, and contribute to decision-making processes. People will not appreciate the value and your knowledge you could add to the organization unless you speak about it to others often enough. In healthcare, there is a lot of opportunities to do so as collaboration often extends beyond specific departments. Build strong relationships with professionals from various disciplines, as cross-functional collaboration can lead to more holistic and effective solutions.
4. Champion Innovation
Leaders always challenge the status quo. Take the time to figure out areas that need improvement and find the courage to proactively lead the change. Raising ideas and solutions is a very admirable way of demonstrating your leadership talent and abilities as an individual. It showcases your ability to inspire a culture of continuous improvement and creativity while fostering an environment where new and effective solutions can emerge. Start with simple things such as organizing information that helps the team work faster or suggesting a schedule to help efficiency. It is not the size of the problem you solve that matters but simply the effort towards collective improvement. This is achievable without the need for titles or a team.
5. Invest in Professional Development
Leadership is a journey where you never stop learning. Great leaders take a deliberate approach to this learning and don’t just rely on learning on the job. As you do all of the above, you will inevitably find innate talent in yourself and skills that you lack just as well. These could be as simple as influencing skills, lack of confidence, presentation skills or effective communication skills perhaps. Take the initiative to invest in your own professional development. Stay informed about industry trends, attend relevant conferences, take skills courses, and acquire new skills that can benefit both you and the broader healthcare organization.
Leading without a title or a formal team in healthcare requires a combination of interpersonal skills, strategic thinking, and a commitment to the broader mission of providing quality care. Adopt these practices within your team and you will definitely be noticed for your leadership qualities in time. Great opportunities and responsibilities are given to those who have first demonstrated the potential to lead. So don’t just wait to be given the opportunity to lead, start to lead first and know that the opportunity will be yours in time.
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